This procedure describes the process by which grants are developed, reviewed, and administered at Lane, including the responsibilities of the Grants Office, the department receiving grant funds, and College Finance.

Narrative:

The Grants Office supports grant-project development and implementation for the college. Grants Office staff perform a range of specific coordination, support, and monitoring roles from development through implementation.

The Grants Office does not help individual students with financial aid or scholarships. Please see Financial Aid and the LCC Foundation for financial aid and scholarship opportunities for students.

Grants Development

Grants Office staff actively seek funding from outside grantors and government agencies to support academic and career technical programs, and to assist students. The Grants Office encourages and supports faculty and departments to apply for grants that further institutional, divisional, departmental and programmatic goals. Grants development at the college occurs in one of two ways:

Strategic Direction Grant-projects: The Office of Academic and Student Affairs works with the Grants Office to create a master grant calendar which identifies funding opportunities for the following year. These projects align directly with the college's strategic directions and often include many departments or are institution-wide. The Grants Office staff divide these projects based on workload or expertise, and work with college content experts (staff, faculty, administrators) to complete the high priority proposals which OASA has determined to be a good use of college resources.Bubble-up: College staff identify project ideas for their division or departments, and seek support from the Grants Office to pursue funding options. These type of projects require staff to fill out a Grant Proposal Form and give a signed copy to any of the Grants Office staff. Before pursuing any external grant funding opportunity, staff MUST obtain approval from their division/departmental dean and the Grants Office with this form (process ensures consistency with college and departmental goals and priorities, as well as preventing a conflict with projects already planned for a particular funder). If approved, OASA will assign Grants Office staff to assist with varying levels of participation, from researching funding sources, facilitate planning sessions, and/or provide writing and editing support. Departments should plan to do the bulk of the writing for these type of projects, with solid support on how to do this from the Grants Office.

See also Grant Project Development steps and tools.

Grants Administration and Implementation

In general, the responsibility for grants administration and reporting lies with the departmental unit obtaining the funds. The principal investigator or project director typically serves as the grants administrator, with support from the department's administrative personnel.

The grant administrator has primary responsibility, both programmatic and fiscal, for complying with all terms and conditions of the grant. For this reason it is essential that the administrator obtain and become thoroughly familiar with all of the granting agency's written policies, procedures, and regulations. The grant administrator must also comply with all of the college's policies and administrative procedures.

College Finance and the Grants Office can support an awardee as they administer their grant, helping them manage timelines, interface with college processes and understand the basic requirements of their grants. If included in the grant budget, implementation staff may help with hiring, and other start-up and ongoing grant support activities.

Upon award of the grant, the grant administrator should notify the Grants Office (the office does not always get a copy of the award letter) as well as sending a copy of the award letter to Grants Accounting in College Finance. Complete the accounting checklist and promptly contact the accountant assigned to the grant to prepare a budget in accordance with the approved budget contained in the grant award. Until this is done, account numbers cannot be set up and no grant funds can be expended. Grant Accounting also maintains the official college file for each grant until the project is completed, and they send files to Archives at end of project.